If you are like many people, the thought of giving a speech to a group of strangers can strike terror into your heart. As an engineer, you know that employers put a premium on soft skills such as public speaking, but you're puzzled about how you can improve your own performance.Shoots Veis understands your predicament. A practicing engineer himself, he often makes presentations to councils, zoning boards, land-use commissions, any of the municipal bodies that contract for infrastructure. He has been on the other side of the podium, too: during a stint on the Billings, Montana, city council,...